3-Cushion
OOSTERHOUT - The KNBB cup final has been launched on Wednesday in Oosterhout with victories for the top favorites and a first loss for titleholder Dallinga. SIS Cleaning, HCR Prinsen, L&B Ledermode and STZ Zundert showed up as the big contenders, but in the coming days there is still a fascinating show down waiting in the atmospheric theater De Bussel. Especially in Group A, with three top teams, a hard battle for the places in the semi-finals on Saturday can be expected.
SIS Schoonmaak and STZ Zundert take the lead in this group ahead of Dallinga and Van de Sanden. The Zundert team won 6-2 on the opening day against Dallinga.com thanks to the victories of Peter Ceulemans, Barry van Beers and Roland Uijtdewillegen. For Dallinga, Caudron took the only win by beating Forthomme 2-1 in sets (1.727/1.571). Ceulemans and De Bruijn played the best match of the first day. Peter Ceulemans won the first and last set, Jean Paul de Bruijn levelled in the second set by a strong 15-1 in 3 innings. The Belgian grabbed the third and deciding set with 15-10 in 5 innings. For both players, high averages were noted: for Ceulemans 2.384, for De Bruijn 2.666.
SIS Schoonmaak had no problems with W.v.d.Sanden in this group, an 8-0 win. Burgman was the best winner with 1.730.
In Group B, HCR Prinsen, in this first game without Dick Jaspers, was too strong for La Plaza, expressed in an 8-0 victory. Eddy Leppens was the best winner with 1.909, yet Roy Zielemans took one set from the Belgian. De Kleine, Pijl and Swertz won against Clabots, Monnissen and Boreas.
For L&B Ledermode, only Dave Christiani suffered a bad day. The Limburg player had no chance against Emilio Sciacca, MCR: 3-0, 0.978/0.800. The Hoeven team won 6-2 thanks to victories by Eddy Merckx over Thorsten Frings (2-1, 1.500/1.115), Gerwin Valentijn over Bert Hoefnagels (2-1, 1.162/0.694) and John Tijssens over Randy Loenen: 2- 1, 0.888/0.695.
This afternoon (Thursday) at 13.00 the Jumbo cup final continues with the next group matches.